The Hounds of Smallville 2
by Mainstream
Summary: In his Junior year of high school, Clark encountered the werewolves of Ireland. One year later, he'll discover how they tie into his crusade for the three stones. Set between the episodes Scare and Unsafe.
1. Prologue The Stones

HOUNDS 2 - _Skinned_

Prologue – The Stones

September

Turbulence took Lex by surprise, causing him to drop the figure of Ra. It broke into several different pieces.

"No! Don't move; I'll get it," insisted the female doctor, motioning for Lex to stay put in the chair attached to the blood-purifying machine.

She noticed a small, clear crystal amongst the rubble - had it been inside the figure? Lex motioned for it, and she complied. He gripped it in fascination of what he had found.

The doctor got a broom and began sweeping and for five minutes, there was calm. Lex fondled the crystal gently and took careful notice of the strange alien symbol on it. It reminded him instantly of the symbols on the cave walls back in Smallville and, for that matter, the same ones on the figure of Ra.

And then the five minutes ended.

The plane was rocked back and forth as if something had hit it. He looked back down at his newfound toy and widened his eyes as he saw it begin to glow and levitate on its own. Before he could snatch it back, it zoomed out of his hand and through the door that separated his private medical facility from the passenger lounge. He jumped to his feet and looked through the hole the crystal had made just in time to see a blurry black figure jump out of the plane through the open hatch.

October

Lex sat down in front of his father. He was babbling, but Lex wasn't really paying attention. It sounded like some gibberish that would inevitably lead to an apology of some sort. Indeed, he caught the last few words his father spoke, "I never told you I loved you."

Lionel put out his hand. Should he take it? His father seemed sincere... Take his hand, you fool.

But before he could, he heard a familiar voice call out, "Lex!"

The next thing he knew, he was knocked to the ground while Clark Kent tussled with Lionel Luthor. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a flash of bright light and some pain in their faces, but it was much too quick to be for sure. He dismissed it as a trick of the light.

December

Lex Luthor had a dream.

He was on his knees in front of a fire, bowing down to it. By his side was a knife, a wooden bowl full of ointment, and a silver stone. On his other side was a thick wolf skin. Just outside of him and the fire was a circle he'd drawn into the ground.

He picked up the knife and began to chant. He thrust the knife into his wrist and led the blood seep out. He dropped the knife and picked up the stone, letting the blood drip onto it. The stone began to glow – dimly at first; then brighter. A blanket of light enveloped him in and all that was left was to put on the ointment and the wolf skin, all while chanting his allegiance to the devil. He did so and he became one with the skin and felt his teeth grow long and his fingernails grow sharp.

The stone kept glowing.

Meanwhile, on a farm in the Midwestern region of a land called North America, in a nation ruled by a democracy, there is a small farm town inhabited by forty thousand people, one of whom was not a human.

The sole survivor of an ancient race on another planet, Kal-El lived among the humans in disharmony. It seemed to be very week that Kal managed to anger some human and a conflict would arise ending in someone either very injured or very dead. The casualties had accumulated over the years.

His freshman year of High School saw the deaths of Tina Greer's mother; a crooked cop named Sam Phelan; a persuasive salesman named Bob Rickman; their first principal, Mr. Kwan; and a twisted reporter named Roger Nixon, just to name a few. His sophomore year was even worse – the obituaries included the mad Dr. Steven Hamilton; the innocent Ryan James; the beautiful Kyla; the former jock and Lana's boyfriend, Whitney Fordman; the brain-dead Doctor Frederick Walden; and countless other students that Clark had never known well but had suffered at the hands of vengeful teenagers with powers.

His Junior year saw a record high for deaths – and they weren't all a result of abusive teenagers with powers. Morgan Edge was killed in a car "accident"; the mysterious and already-dead Adam Knight troubled Clark for quite a while before biting the dust; Van McNulty went on a one-man crusade against those infected by the meteor rocks; the brilliant Dr. Teng was murdered by one of her own patients, along with her staff; Pete Ross' brief stint as a drag racer ended the life of the cheater Dante; an FBI agent dug too deep into the mystery of Clark Kent and was killed by Lindsay – who masqueraded as the Kryptonian Kara and was eventually disposed of by Jor-El, Kal-El's father. In addition, Lex found out his father, Lionel, was responsible for his grandparents' deaths and had him arrested.

But the most violent and mysterious series of deaths of all was taboo to the citizens of Smallville. It all began when a teenager from Gotham City moved in. His name was Edward Drake.

Edward Drake had spent some time in Ireland and received the werewolf disease. When he came to Smallville, it was passed on to Lex and half of the police force. By the time the whole situation had ended – which led Clark and Lionel to origin of the werewolves themselves, Ireland – enough people had died to rival the total amount of murders in the past three years.

Werewolves.

Even today, when someone heard that word, everyone within distance of hearing it shuddered. The mere idea that something so mystical, so legendary could cause such destruction and death was frightening to think about. When you went to go see movies, you could always take comfort in knowing that none of it was real.

And even in Smallville, home of the weird, people turned a blind eye to all the mysterious events no one could seem to explain. When alien symbols got burned into crops and the sides of barns, it was clearly the sadistic work of arsonists; nothing more. As far as anyone was concerned, the town of Smallville was as normal as normal could get. Normalville is what it should have been called. Nothing strange about here.

People like Chloe Sullivan were frowned upon; always insistent that there was a supernatural element to Smallville. Her fascination with the weird was the origin of the Wall of Weird that sat in the office of the school newspaper, the _Torch_.

But even she could always trace all of the weird occurrences back to the meteor shower and the radioactive rocks it had littered all over the town. For Smallville, meteor rocks – which Clark and his family had dubbed 'kryptonite' – and their effects were what passed for normal.

So when furry wolf-men come into town, with no previous kryptonite exposure, everyone got scared. Where did they come from? Why were they here? Who would the scapegoat be this time?

Smallville was scared.

So it seems appropriate that no one could shake off the effects of a virus that gripped Smallville recently. LuthorCorp was experimenting with another new drug and there was an outbreak. People were reliving their worse fears in horribly realistic nightmares. Even Clark was not immune; dreaming of a new meteor shower that brought even more destruction and mayhem. He was, however, the only one to shake off the effects in time to save the day.

But people are still scared. And they have the right to be.

Because on this morning, Clark heard a high-pitched squeal, causing him to clutch his ears in pain. He'd felt this feeling before – several times in fact – but it always caught him by surprise. It would only last a few moments before finally wearing off…

But today it took longer than he expected. And louder. And when he finally felt the pain ease and the squeal dim he pulled his hands away from the sides of his head and gaped in horror at the blood on his hands.

He ran to the bathroom and tried to wash it off _but it would not come off_.

And the more he washed, the more blood appeared as if bleeding from invisible cuts on his hands. He looked in the mirror and was shocked to see red tears pour from his eyes down his cheeks. He could feel black sores all over his body and – though it rarely ever happened to him – he passed out.


	2. Chapter 1 Two Men, Two Destinies

When Clark finally came to, the first thing he noticed was that there was no blood on his hands, his face, or the floor. There were no black sores on his body and his eyes were just fine. He got up and walked downstairs, deciding on the way that he would not tell his parents – he didn't want to upset them over something that had probably been a figment of his imagination.

Clark Kent's life was one big drama – and it was one he did not often enjoy acting out. For three years, he'd seen fellow students around him drop dead, mostly because of the negative effects of the meteor rocks that had been embedded in this town. The meteor rocks were like his prison – as long as they continued to affect the people in Smallville, he would feel too guilty to leave and always remain here.

That, and his parents' trouble with the farm were the ball and chain that kept him in this small town. Why else was he having so much finding the 'right' college to go to? MetU, NYU, Miami University, Princeton – pick one, dammit! But for Clark, making the decision was not easy, and he harbored the desire to just go to some local community college.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and almost yelled – for a brief moment, he thought he saw his parents lying on the floor, unconscious. But the moment passed and the image faded – there was nothing.

Clark spent the Saturday morning outside doing his chores, like a good son should. When he was through with that, he headed over to the Talon to help his mother. As always, though – he had an ulterior motive. Sure enough, when he entered he could see Lana Lang chatting with his mother at the counter while they put away pastries in the display for customers to gaze at. Briefly, he had another flash – Lana Lang standing over him with a Kryptonite shard in her hands, reading to strike him.

He tried to tell himself that it had only been a vision from last week, when he'd been temporarily affected by the scare toxin. But part of him still saw Lana as this vengeful witch, angry at him for bringing with him the rocks that killed her parents…

Lana spotted him and though he wanted to talk to her, he couldn't handle the conflicting emotions inside of him. So he walked out.

He ran as fast he could back to the barn to pick up a familiar octagonal silver object he'd found years ago. From there, he ran to the Kawatche caves that he'd discovered in his sophomore year. Back then, it was a frequently talked-about place. Several teens hosted a rave there; Lionel Luthor acquired it from his son and conducted several tests there but found nothing. Lex always had a silent fascination with the caves but since their discovery, he'd found very little and deciphered almost none of the symbols on the walls.

Time passed, and now only Clark ventured down to the caves, with maybe an occasional visit from Lex. Down here, in the furthest, deepest section from the entrance, Clark had found a movable cave wall that led into a secret chamber. He pressed his hand on three different symbols on the wall, which formed a triangle and watched as his handprints glowed red, blue, and yellow. The symbols shifted and rearranged themselves. The wall opened.

Inside was a sort of round, flat slab with several more symbols on its surface and in the middle was a sort of diamond-shaped indent with one sole crystal resting in it. Clark lifted his octogonal key and put it into a slot on the slab. There was a bright beam of light that shined on him and the crystal. He heard the now-familiar voice of his biological father, Jor-El.

"Kal-El. It has been four earth-months since I presented you with your crusade for the three stones of knowledge. Another stone has been since revealed and you did not bring it, or any other stone, to me. Have I not expressed the urgency of this mission? If the Earthlings are to get their hands on those stones, the Earth will fall under its own greed."

Clark spoke, "Jor-El—I told you I don't want to have anything to do with you or your crusade! I just want to live my life with my friends and be normal!"

"You have expressed as such."

Clark faltered, "But things… things are different now."

They were. It seemed to him that everyone had moved on. Pete was gone. Lana was with a new man, Jason Teague, whom she'd met while in Paris. Though he had always known it, Clark had begun to realize that Chloe really _was_ going to be a crack journalist for a major metropolitan newspaper and he wouldn't be able to keep up with her, or any of his friends. He felt like he'd really be doomed to live his life on the farm, worrying about the harvest and outliving everyone he knew.

It wasn't the life on the farm that had him worried so badly. But he'd always pictured his friends to always be with him – or at least until their mortality caught up with him. He'd never expected to lose them so quickly…

"I don't know what it is you have in mind for me," stated Clark. "But I'll finish the damn crusade! I'll find the stones, just… give me a better idea as to how I'm supposed to find them!"

"You disappoint me, Kal-El."

"No, wait—I heard the ringing I always do when someone has the stone this morning, but it was different this time. I didn't have a chance to follow it—I passed out!"

For a moment, silence.

"Have you been feeling ill as of late?" asked Jor-El.

Clark was caught off-guard. "I guess."

The one crystal Clark had successfully retreived began to rise into the air, glowing and humming. Clark held out a hand for the crystal to jump into.

Jor-El continued, "You will use this to aid your search, Kal-El. Once you retrieve the stone you've recently detected, you will bring it here immediately. I suspect there may be more to it than even I anticipated."

"Any ideas as to what the problem is?" Clark asked.

"I was not the only Kryptonian to ever visit Earth, Kal-El."

The glowing stopped, and the beams of lights disappeared. Clark walked out of the chamber, with the crystal and the key in his hands.

When Lex woke up that same morning, he felt excellent.

He took the chopper to LuthorCorp and arrived a couple of minutes early. _Excellent_, he thought to himself as he settled down into the comfortable chair behind his desk. _It's not every day I can feel good about running an empire built and murder and lies by my father_.

Work went as usual. Sign a couple of papers, oversee a few projects. Smile like a little school boy at seeing the stock steadily go back up. _Sauveur de LuthorCorp?_ Lex thought. _Indeed._

It was only on his way back to LuthorCorp, via his Porsche, that something went wrong. He was driving too fast—again—when he saw something in the trees leap out in front of his car. Lex slammed the brakes and screeched to a stop, quickly jumping out to see what he'd hit.

There was no damage on the front of his car, and now that his mind stopped swimming and the thoughts in his head cleared – he could have sworn that whatever it was he almost hit had jumped up and over the car, thereby avoiding getting hit.

And what was it, anyway?

Lex thought hard. It had been big and dark with fur all over its body. It had landed and jumped on two legs, like a human, maybe. But humans don't have fur. And now that he thought about it, when it landed, it didn't land very realistically – it sort of _bounced_.

Lex looked at his hand and watched in shock as his driving gloves began to envelope his hands and arms. Black leather bit as his arms, swallowing him and knocking him to the ground. The last thought in his mind before passing out was… a feeling, really.

The feeling of running through the woods on all fours, fangs bared, and the smell of blood in the distance mixed with a primal rush. _The same kind of rush you get from running an empire built on murder and lies… The rush of getting 'away with it'._

He passed out.


End file.
